Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Roy Doty's Coronet Page Toppers

The first Roy Doty illustration I ever saw was the page topper he drew for the above article on frankfurters for Coronet magazine. I was immediately struck by Doty's clean, amusing style and the amazing complexity of his miniature world.

Doty did a lot of page toppers for Coronet during the first half of the 50's. His work appears in almost every issue from that period.

It would be easy to miss the details in these wonderful cartoons. You almost need a magnifying glass to really appreciate the range of expressions, body language, and character types Doty took the time to meticulously render - knowing full well that his artwork would often be reproduced at less than an inch in height.

Here is just a tiny sampling of Roy Doty's many spot illustrations for Coronet. At the same time as these illustrations were seeing print, Doty was doing work for virtually every other national magazine in America - often involving far more tiny people engaged in all manner of activity. Its a wonder Doty ever found time to eat and sleep!

Coronet page toppersIf you'd like a closer look at all of these images, take a gander at the largest size versions in my Roy Doty Flickr set - and remember - Doty's 85th birthday surprise party is this coming Sunday... please help him celebrate it by leaving a comment or birthday wish at the end of this post - and many thanks to the folks who already did so yesterday!

5 comments:

I remember Roy's "Laugh In" comic strip quite well. He had a very light hearted line with an easy going style. It's great to learn here about the roots of his style in his earlier career. Thanks, Leif.

And Happy Birthday to Roy!!! You've done a lot of great work over a long career. Congratulations!